Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday, January 4, said that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would form the government in Tamil Nadu in the 2026 Assembly elections, even as alliance partner AIADMK differed.
Shah was addressing the concluding meeting of the ‘Tamilagam Thalai Nimira Tamilanin Payanam’ yatra at Pudukottai, led by Tamil Nadu BJP president Nainar Nagenthran. He called upon the people of the state to “march together under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and begin a revolutionary journey for Tamil Nadu.”
Opposition leader and head of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Edappadi Palaniswami, meanwhile, reiterated that it would be the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) that will come to power.
He expressed confidence that the party would secure a sole majority for the government in 2026. He was addressing a public gathering in Salem as part of his ‘Makkalai Kaappom, Tamilagathai Meetpom’ campaign on the same day the Home Minister made his comments.
Shah said that BJP, along with the AIADMK and other NDA constituents, would soon forge a strong alliance to form the next government in the state. “However long it may take, we will end the DMK regime and ultimately remove it from power,” he declared.
Reiterating that the NDA would secure a majority in Tamil Nadu in 2026, the Home Minister recalled that the BJP and AIADMK had contested elections together in 1998, 2019 and 2021. Even though the two parties fought separately in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he claimed that a combined vote share would have translated into victory in as many as 26 parliamentary constituencies.
Both EPS and Amit Shah launched attacks on the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, with Shah alleging that the party had failed to fulfil most of its poll promises and accusing it of failing to ensure the safety of women. He further claimed that the sole objective of the present government was to pave the way for Chief Minister MK Stalin’s son, Udhayanidhi Stalin, to eventually assume the Chief Minister’s post.
Palaniswami, meanwhile, stated that the DMK had been inactive for most of its tenure and had only begun working as the polls neared.
Rejecting allegations that the NDA was “anti-Tamil”, the home minister said it was under the Modi government that Tamil was first permitted as an optional language in the IAS and IPS examinations, and that railway announcements in Tamil had become routine. He also highlighted initiatives such as the establishment of a Tamil chair named after poet Subramania Bharati in Varanasi and the translation of the Thirukkural into 13 languages.
The Home Minister accused the DMK government of curbing Hindu religious rights, citing restrictions during the Ayodhya Bhoomi Pujan and controversial remarks by senior DMK leaders on Sanatana Dharma. “In 2026, we must ensure NDA majorities in both West Bengal and Tamil Nadu,” he said.